When at home, he attends only to his weapons and his horses, preparing the means of future exploit.

Or he engages with his comrades in games of dexterity, agility and strength; or in gambling games in which everything is put at hazard with a recklessness seldom witnessed in civilized life.
A great part of the idle leisure of the Indians when at home is passed in groups, squatted together on the bank of a river, on the top of a mound on the prairie, or on the roof of one of their earth-covered lodges, talking over the news of the day, the affairs of the tribe, the events and exploits of their last hunting or fighting expedition; or listening to the stories of old times told by some veteran chronicler; resembling a group of our village quidnuncs and politicians, listening to the prosings of some superannuated oracle, or discussing the contents of an ancient newspaper.
As to the Indian women, they are far from complaining of their lot.

On the contrary, they would despise their husbands could they stoop to any menial office, and would think it conveyed an imputation upon their own conduct.

It is the worst insult one virago can cast upon another in a moment of altercation.

"Infamous woman!" will she cry, "I have seen your husband carrying wood into his lodge to make the fire.